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theSunday Special VII ON SUNDAY MAY 3, 2026

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A MERICAN musician Dave Grohl recently joined Zane Lowe in a studio ahead of the Foo Fighters’ 12th studio album Your Favourite Toy . Throughout the conversation, Grohl discussed the inspiration behind the album, how the band continues to evolve its sound, going back out on tour and his experience recording the album at home. The two also spend time reflecting on Grohl’s early career and his relationship with Kurt Cobain and other Nirvana bandmates. On deciding songs to include in his tour set list Grohl: With this new record, every single song feels great. It’s because the way the songs were written, recorded... it’s kind of simple and direct. It has more to do with the energy than any sort of proficiency. All of these new songs feel really great. So, that’s 10 new songs that we’re going to have to add to an already 26 song setlist. For years, one of my favourite things about playing shows is the connection with the audience. That connection happens in moments when everyone joins together in a chorus. So, if it’s Best of You, Everlong, Times Like These, Learn to Fly, Pretender or it’s All My Life , those are the moments that are like gluten. That’s the thing that pulls everything together. I wouldn’t want to go and lose that connection by veering off into long periods of obscurity. I’m all about Queen at Live Aid. About Foo Fighters’ 2025 single Today’s Song Grohl: Last year, we released a song called Today’s Song . That was just a stand-alone that we recorded and put it out. We still work in a lot of old school systems and ways methods. It’s like, “...wait, you could just release one song and put it out? Shouldn’t it be a whole part of a whole record? Everyone’s like no, no, no... just put it out.” So, we put it out. It (history of the band) was a continuation of this thing that we’ve built over the last 30 years. About the inspiration for Your Favorite Toy Grohl: We started doing these club gigs, to prepare for tours that were coming up, but also to really get connected with Ilan (Rubin), our drummer. The energy of those gigs, at which we were pulling out like Winnebago , a song the first record we released. We started pulling out all of these because we knew that the people who would be there, would really like get their teeth in it and understand. It was the energy of those shows that inspired this record. It was like the feeling of a small space of a three and a half minute long song in which you’re just like banging. That really inspired the energy of this, and that’s what we love to do. As much as we love some of those bigger, more orchestrated compositions that we’ve had over the years, right now that’s what we want to do and it feels so good. On deciding what songs make the album’s final cut Grohl: First of all, you set the bar yourself. So, you don’t let anybody else set the bar. In listening to all of these demos that we had done, there was this batch, this one clump, this group of songs that just randomly popped up together

Today’s Song

Grohl says 10 new songs are going to be added in an already 26-song setlist. – ALL PICS FROM APPLE MUSIC / THE ZANE LOWE SHOW

Dave Grohl talks about new Foo Fighters album, going back on tour and Kurt Cobain

on a playlist. It was like 10 or 11, 12 songs and they just had this energy that was like an urgency. Some of them didn’t have lyrics to them. Some of them were just like a sound. For whatever reason, it’s like that in our little world, in our band, that’s what felt necessary at the time. That’s the most important thing. It’s the

with Nirvana, we all needed to be there. There have been moments in our timeline when it’s like, not only do we need each other, but we need this band, we need this music. On not working with Krist Novoselic again after Nirvana Grohl: We never had like a deeper longer

“ First of all, you set the bar yourself. So, you don’t let anybody else set the bar. ”

expectation within the room, more so than outside of the room. On the early days of Foo Fighters

conversation about it. But after Nirvana ended, we all wound up in places that felt, I don’t want to say comfortable, but safe. When I went into the studio and recorded by myself, I felt safe there. I can’t speak for Krist, but at the time, we were just trying to get our feet back on the ground. For me, that’s something that I thought, “... okay, well music is the thing that’s going to rescue me.” For Krist, stability or security maybe backing off a little bit. That might have been what he felt he needed to

Grohl: My daughter Violet, she’s putting out a record and she’s in the early stages of this thing. But I’m watching Violet enter into this new world, this new life, this new phase. First of all, she had it since she was a kid. But (now I’m) watching her do all of these things that I remember doing in-stores at

in the world.” We all laughed. I don’t know if he was kidding. Considering where we were from and our musical timeline existence, that’s impossible because it was 1990 and all these pop stars were on top of the charts. It got a lot more complicated after so many people joined the party, but maybe most songwriters when they write songs, it’s like you want them to be heard or you want them to be felt or you want someone to feel what you feel. Just as a listener wants to feel what the artiste feels. Maybe it’s empathy. I don’t know what the exact intention was, but I do know Kurt was one of the greatest songwriters of all time and it was inevitable. On recording Your Favorite Toy at home Grohl: The environment in which you make an album or create anything determines the outcome of what you’re doing. That’s why people talk about Bowie’s Berlin years. People talk about Muscle Shoals . It’s an environment and an atmosphere and inevitably that will influence the outcome. A house is not a home, it’s that feeling of the things that your surroundings that make you feel at home. For me, it’s above my garage, you know. It’s with my guys.” Grohl spoke to Lowe about the inspiration behind the album. – ALL PICS FROM APPLE MUSIC / THE ZANE LOWE SHOW

Fingerprints. I remember running from interview to video and all of these things. It has made me think about then a lot more. I’m revisiting a lot of how I felt, and she and I talk about it. I look back at that time and we were flying by the seat of our pants. There was no attention or focus on any sort of musical proficiency. It was just a vibe. We all needed to be there. You know, Will (Goldsmith) and Nate (Mendel) coming out of Sunny Day Real Estate. They’re a great rhythm section, their band fell apart. It was like me and Pat (Smear) having been through everything we’d been together

do. But we didn’t have that deeper conversation. And Pat, I didn’t think (he) would be our guitar player. I just sent him a tape. One of the early cassettes. He was like, “oh my god, it’s so poppy.” I’m like, “... is it? Okay, is that a good thing?” And to Pat, that is a great thing. I had already started jamming with Nate and William and I was like: “Hey, if you want to play guitar... “I didn’t expect he would. Then, he decided he would jam with us. It was great.” On coming back together with his Nirvana bandmates and reflects on its time with Kurt Cobain Grohl: It’s such a weird thing to feel afraid to play songs. For a long time, I was even afraid just to sit down at a drum set and play the opening riff to Smells Like Teen Spirit . The few times that Krist and Pat and I have gotten together to do it, it’s a trip. It’s like a time warp. A time capsule. The noise that the three of us make together, you don’t really get that noise anywhere else. I always go back to when we flew to New York to talk to record companies to sign a deal before Nevermind came out. We sat down in this high-rise major label office withan executive who was sitting behind a giant oak desk and listening to the song on stun volume. The song ends and he says: “... okay, what do you guys want?” Kurt says: “We want to be the biggest band

Lowe and Grohl talking about making music back then and now. – ALL PICS FROM APPLE MUSIC / THE ZANE LOWE SHOW.